Monday, June 24, 2013

Microsoft investing $700m to expand Iowa data center | Joystiq

"Project Mountain" will see Microsoft invest $700 million into expanding its data center in West Des Moines, Iowa. As a result, Microsoft will receive $20 million in tax credits from the Iowa Economic Development Authority Board, the Des Moines Register reports.

One thing the data center will be used for is supporting Xbox Live and, presumably, the Xbox One's cloud computing features touted by Microsoft. Christian Belady, general manager of data center services at Microsoft, says this expansion "supports the growing demand for Microsoft's cloud services" and represents "our latest in efficient data center thinking."

Microsoft now owns about 40 acres of land in West Des Moines, employing around 50 individuals at the data center currently. Head count is expected to increase by at least 24 more in Iowa, Wired says. Other companies investing in Iowa data centers include Facebook and Google.

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2013/06/24/microsoft-investing-700m-to-expand-iowa-data-center/

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Informant or not, Whitey Bulger still making FBI look bad

The trial of James 'Whitey' Bulger is now focusing on FBI evidence claiming that Bulger was an informant ? a claim he refutes. The court proceedings are showing an ugly side of the FBI.

By Mark Trumbull,?Staff writer / June 24, 2013

A vehicle with bullet holes and broken glass was shown to jurors earlier this month hearing the racketeering and murder trial of accused Boston mob boss James 'Whitey' Bulger.

US Attorney's Office/Reuters

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Controversy surrounding the FBI took center stage in the trial of reputed gangster James ?Whitey? Bulger Monday, with lawyers sparring over the agency?s flawed use of criminals as informants.

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Prosecutors said Mr. Bulger spent years as an informant, and presented evidence suggesting he abused his secret role to help him get away with murder and other crimes.

Defense attorneys are putting a different spin on Bulger?s relationship with federal agents ? citing corruption within the FBI?s Boston office to raise questions about whether there?s credible evidence that Bulger was an informant.

Either way, the federal law enforcement agency doesn?t come out looking good.

Officially, this high-profile criminal case is about whether Bulger will be found guilty of racketeering charges that include 19 murders and other organized-crime activities. But unofficially, the trial is also serving as a venue for airing missteps and corruption within law enforcement ? most notably the FBI.

Some criminal-justice experts say the tale of Bulger as informant symbolizes an era when FBI personnel were desperate to make headway against the Mafia.

To the FBI at the time, Bulger and his main crime partner, Stephen Flemmi, were important informers against Italian-American organized crime in the region. The problem: They themselves were also big-time criminals, who appear to have gotten the best of the FBI relationship for years.

Some murder-victim family members say the FBI role, as revealed in this trial and others before it, is deeply troubling.

?Did anybody not get immunity?? It seems like nobody?s going to jail here,? said Tom Donahue, the son of a 1982 Boston murder victim, referring to the immunity that some former FBI officials have been granted in the case.

Talking to reporters outside court Monday, Mr. Donahue said his father was killed because one FBI informant (Bulger) was worried that another FBI informant (Brian Halloran) would incriminate him. Mr. Halloran was shot in a car outside a Boston restaurant. Donahue?s father was shot just because he was neighbors with Halloran and happened to be giving him a ride home at the time.

Halloran and Donahue represent two of Bulger?s alleged 19 murders in the trial, which started early this month.

One of the next witnesses for the prosecution will be John Morris, a former FBI supervisor in Boston.

But not all FBI personnel have, like Mr. Morris, been granted immunity from prosecution.

Notably, FBI Agent John Connolly is already in prison because of his role as an informant ?handler? who went astray. Mr. Connolly frequently interviewed Bulger and Mr. Flemmi, and drew up reports with information they provided about other criminals. But Connolly also accepted money from Bulger and Flemmi, and fed them information.

Connolly was convicted in 2002 for warning Bulger that an indictment was coming ? enabling Bulger to successfully flee Boston early in 1995. Then Connolly was convicted of second-degree murder in Florida in 2008, for telling Bulger?s group that one of its associates might become a cooperating witness ? a tip that resulted in a 1982 murder.

In Monday?s courtroom duel, the prosecution had the lead role ? spending all four hours of the court session walking through evidence based on Bulger?s FBI informant file with witness James Marra of the US Department of Justice.

But the defense scored a victory by getting Judge Denise Casper to sustain a key objection. In effect, the judge ruled that prosecutors can?t imply that the statements attributed by the FBI to Bulger were actually made by Bulger.

If the defense scored a technical victory on this point, however, that doesn?t mean it will ultimately win the war over whether Bulger?s legacy includes the ?informant? label.

Prosecuting attorney Fred Wyshak presented numerous documents attributing information to Bulger. The tips were often detailed, fingering specific people as alleged murderers, for example.

And although the FBI?s own reputation is sullied, the jury is unlikely to view Bulger as a something akin to an underworld saint.

Some of the nuggets attributed to Bulger appeared to aimed at keeping FBI investigators off his trail. Prior to the murder of drug dealer Halloran, for instance, the FBI reported tips from Bulger saying that Halloran?s life was at risk from other criminals.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/eutcqBgWyBk/Informant-or-not-Whitey-Bulger-still-making-FBI-look-bad

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Promise of price cut on hospital bills is in limbo

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Huge list prices charged by hospitals are drawing increased attention, but a federal law meant to limit what the most financially vulnerable patients can be billed doesn't seem to be making much difference.

A provision in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul says most hospitals must charge uninsured patients no more than what people with health insurance are billed.

The goal is to protect patients from medical bankruptcy, a problem that will not go away next year when Obama's law expands coverage for millions.

Because the Affordable Care Act doesn't cover everyone, many people will remain uninsured. Also, some who could sign up are expected to procrastinate even though the law requires virtually everyone to have health insurance.

Consumer groups that lobbied for a "fair pricing" provision are disappointed. A university researcher who's studied the issue says the government doesn't seem to be doing much enforcement, and at least one state, Colorado, enacted a stricter rule since the federal statute passed.

Critics say the law has several problems:

?It applies only to nonprofit institutions, which means about 40 percent of all community hospitals are exempted. By comparison, the Colorado law also covers for-profit hospitals.

?It lacks a clear formula for hospitals to determine which uninsured patients qualify for financial aid, and how deep a discount is reasonable. A California law spells out such a formula for that state's hospitals.

?More than three years after Obama signed his law, the Internal Revenue Service has not issued final rules explaining how hospitals should comply with the federal billing limits. Delay doesn't signal a high priority.

"We still hear the same stories about patients who are being sent to (debt) collection," said Jessica Curtis, director of the hospital accountability project at Community Catalyst, a Boston-based advocacy group that led the push for billing limitations. "It's the same behavior that we were seeing before the passage of the Affordable Care Act."

The Obama administration responds that fair pricing is the law of the land, and that hospitals are expected to comply even if the IRS has not finalized the rules. The agency has begun compliance reviews, a spokeswoman said.

The health law "helps to protect patients from hidden and high prices and unreasonable collection actions," said Treasury Department spokeswoman Sabrina Siddiqui.

The American Hospital Association says it urges members to limit charges to the uninsured in line with the federal law. But neither the administration nor the industry has statistics on how many hospitals are doing so.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently took on hospital pricing policies when she released federal data that document wide disparities in what different hospitals charge for the same procedures.

Most patients never face those list prices because private insurers negotiate lower rates and government programs such as Medicare get to set what they will pay. The burden of paying list price falls on the uninsured and people with skimpy policies. It's unclear that the federal requirements are helping at all.

Justin Farman, a nursing student from Watertown, in upstate New York, was diagnosed with a blood cancer last fall, when he was uninsured.

Going without health insurance is a calculated risk taken by many young people starting out their careers. Farman, 26, said the $120 his employer charged monthly for premiums was too much for his budget. Besides, he was in good shape and an avid weightlifter. But months of deep tiredness and unexplained weight loss led him to consult doctors, and he was eventually diagnosed with lymphoma.

Treatment at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse was successful, but Farman faced more than $54,000 in medical bills, between the hospital and doctors.

"After I went into remission, the bills started to roll in," said Farman. The hospital did not tell him that financial assistance might be available, Farman said.

He had to fend off collection agencies. "That's not too fun," he added.

A spokesman for Upstate said the federal fair pricing law does not appear to apply to the hospital because it is publicly owned and not incorporated as a nonprofit under federal law. Spokesman Darryl Geddes said he could not discuss individual cases, but the hospital does not decline care to anyone based on the individual's ability to pay. Upstate maintains a financial assistance program that complies with state law, he added.

Part way through his treatment, Farman was able to get on Medicaid. With the help of a community agency, he also applied for assistance under New York law to help pay for his medical care during the period he was uninsured. On Friday, he received a letter saying his application had been approved and his debts would be greatly reduced.

Such discounts should be taken up front, advocates say.

Congress needs to take a second look at the federal law, says University of Southern California health policy professor Glenn Melnick.

As written, the law leaves it up to hospitals to determine which uninsured people qualify for discounted bills, and that could create a whole new set of disparities.

"One hospital could say it applies to people at 100 percent of the poverty line, and another could say 200 percent," Melnick explained. He called the enforcement provisions were "very weak."

A California law could serve as a model, he said. It defines the patients who qualify for assistance as those who are uninsured or making at or below 350 percent of the federal poverty line ? $40,215 for an individual and $82,425 for a family of four. Those patients cannot be charged more than the hospital would receive from Medicare.

"This issue will not go away," said Melnick. "Even when the (Affordable Care Act) is fully implemented, there will be millions and millions of people without insurance."

___

Online:

Health care law: http://www.healthcare.gov

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/healthreform/healthcare-overview

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/promise-price-cut-hospital-bills-limbo-121939649.html

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10 Things to Know for Tuesday

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Tuesday:

1. WHAT'S ANGERING THE WHITE HOUSE

Hong Kong's decision not to detain Snowden has "unquestionably" hurt relations between the U.S. and China, the Obama administration says.

2. ZIMMERMAN TRIAL OPENS WITH STARTLING LANGUAGE

The prosecution begins by repeating obscenities that the ex-neighborhood watchman uttered to a police dispatcher moments before his deadly confrontation with Trayvon Martin.

3. IMMIGRATION OVERHAUL PASSES KEY TEST

Monday's vote clears the way for Senate passage of a bill calling for more than $30 billion in new border security and a chance at citizenship for millions.

4. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION SURVIVES SUPREME COURT REVIEW

But the ruling regarding the University of Texas seems certain to generate more challenges to race-conscious admissions plans.

5. LEFT, TOO, CAME UNDER IRS SCRUTINY

The AP obtains an internal agency document showing terms such as "Progressive" and "Occupy" were used to help pick groups for closer examination.

6. 'BUNGA BUNGA' LANDS BERLUSCONI A 7-YEAR SENTENCE

Italy's ex-premier is also banned from politics for life after paying an underage prostitute for sex during one of his infamous parties, then forcing a cover-up.

7. WHY A SAFETY NET IS IN TATTERS

House investigators say Social Security is approving disability benefits at strikingly high rates, leaving the fund on the brink of insolvency.

8. SOUTH AFRICANS URGED TO PRAY FOR MANDELA

The nation's president says doctors are doing everything they can for the critically ill former leader.

9. WHICH HOLLYWOOD STAR IS DISPARAGING HIS OWN FILM

Jim Carrey says "Kick-Ass 2," in which he plays a superhero vigilante, contains violence that he cannot support after the Connecticut school shootings.

10. ANOTHER EARLY WIMBLEDON EXIT FOR NADAL

The Spaniard is bounced out in the first round by 135th-ranked Steve Darcis of Belgium. Last year, Nadal lost in the second round.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/10-things-know-tuesday-103642113.html

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Snowden says US targets included China cell phones

HONG KONG (AP) ? A former National Security Agency contractor says that U.S. hacking targets in China included the nation's mobile-phone companies and two universities hosting extensive Internet traffic hubs in the latest allegations as Washington pushes Hong Kong to extradite the ex-contractor.

The latest charges from Edward Snowden came in a series of reports published over the weekend by the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's leading English-language daily. The newspaper, which appears to have access to Snowden, said Saturday he is still in Hong Kong and not in police custody.

On Saturday, the Obama administration warned Hong Kong against dragging out the extradition of Snowden, reflecting concerns over a possible long legal battle before he ever appears in a U.S. courtroom to answer espionage charges for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs.

A formal extradition request would also pit Beijing against Washington at a time China is trying to deflect U.S. accusations that it carries out extensive surveillance on American government and commercial operations.

The U.S. has contacted authorities in Hong Kong to seek Snowden's extradition, the National Security Council said Saturday in a statement. The NSC advises the president on national security.

Snowden told the South China Morning Post that "the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data." It added that Snowden said he had documents to support the hacking allegations, but the report did not identify the documents. It said he spoke to the paper in a June 12 interview.

With a population of more than 1.3 billion, China has massive cell-phone companies. China Mobile is the world's largest mobile network carrier, with 735 million subscribers, followed by China Unicom with 258 million users and China Telecom with 172 million users.

Snowden said Tsinghua University in Beijing and Chinese University in Hong Kong, home of some of the country's major Internet traffic hubs, were targets of extensive hacking by U.S. spies this year. He said the NSA was focusing on so-called "network backbones" in China, through which enormous amounts of Internet data passes.

Snowden is believed to be hiding in an unknown location in Hong Kong, where he has been holed up since admitting to providing information to the news media about highly classified NSA surveillance programs. He has not been seen publicly since he checked out of a Hong Kong hotel on June 10.

The newspaper reports came after a one-page criminal complaint against Snowden was unsealed Friday in federal court, revealing he had been charged with espionage and theft.

The Obama administration on Saturday warned Hong Kong against slow-walking his extradition, with White House national security adviser Tom Donilon saying in an interview with CBS News: "Hong Kong has been a historically good partner of the United States in law enforcement matters, and we expect them to comply with the treaty in this case."

Some Hong Kong lawmakers have called on Beijing to intervene and instruct the Hong Kong government on how to handle the situation before his case goes through the courts, but Beijing has yet to comment. The Hong Kong government has also not commented.

But China's state-run media have used the case to poke back at Washington after the U.S. had spent the past several months pressuring China on its international spying operations..

A commentary published Sunday by Xinhua News Agency said Snowden's disclosures of U.S. spying activities in China have "put Washington in a really awkward situation."

"Washington should come clean about its record first. It owes ... an explanation to China and other countries it has allegedly spied on," it said. "It has to share with the world the range, extent and intent of its clandestine hacking programs."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/snowden-says-us-targets-included-china-cell-phones-073119007.html

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Dog Buries Dead Puppy In Astounding Act Of Mourning (VIDEO)

  • Melbourne Zoo?s newest primate baby, a three week-old Colobus monkey, is held in the arms of her mother Clover, in Melbourne on June 29, 2011. Keepers have not been able to determine the sex of the newborn monkey which is pure white and won?t display any black markings until it?s several months old. Black and White Colobus Monkeys, native to Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Kenya, have seen their populations suffer from the fur trade during colonial times, but now the greatest threats to their survival are the loss of their habitat and the bushmeat trade, the large-scale hunting to supply meat to towns and cities. (WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A lynx born on June 10, 2011, is pictured with its mother on June 30, 2011, at the Amneville's zoo, eastern France. (CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN/AFP/Getty Images)

  • An unnamed baby baboon is seen in his mothers arms at the Hagenbeck Zoo on April 18, 2012 in Hamburg, Germany. (Photo by Joern Pollex/Getty Images)

  • A Siberian tiger (Panthere tiger altaica) mother Niva carries one of her newborns at the Budapest Zoo and Botanic Garden in the Hungarian capital on July 4, 2011. Three eight-week-old Siberian tigers, Virgil, Thrax and Manu, were presented to the press for the first time with their health checkups and ID chips implanted by the chief doctor of the zoo. (ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP/Getty Images)

  • An eight-day old black-capped capuchin offspring holds on to its mother in an enclosure at the Serengeti animal park in Hodenhagen, western Germany, on May 14, 2012. (HOLGER HOLLEMANN/AFP/GettyImages)

  • Lion mother Princess licks one of her white lion babies on July 17, 2012 in Kempten, southern Germany. Lion mother Princess gave birth to six white lion cubs on July 11, 2012 at the Circus Krone. (OBIAS KLEINSCHMIDT/AFP/GettyImages)

  • Sydney Wildlife World's new baby joey koala 'Boonda', clings to its mother 'Elle' on June 28, 2011. Koalas are under threat due to a shortage of suitable habitat from mass land clearance, with Sydney Wildlife World launching KOALA HQ in July, to help raise much needed awareness regarding the importance of conserving one of Australia's most iconic and adored marsupials. (GREG WOOD/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Sydney Wildlife World's new baby joey koala 'Boonda' (C), clings to its mother 'Elle' on June 28, 2011. Koalas are under threat due to a shortage of suitable habitat from mass land clearance, with Sydney Wildlife World launching KOALA HQ in July, to help raise much needed awareness regarding the importance of conserving one of Australia's most iconic and adored marsupials. (GREG WOOD/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Baby 'Kipenzi' sits in her mother 'Kriba's' arms at the Taronga Zoo on January 25, 2011 in Sydney, Australia. The baby western lowland Gorilla, 'Kipenzi' was born to mother 'Kriba' and father 'Kibabu' on January 15th. Western lowland Gorillas are on the critically endangered list. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

  • A wild macaque baby monkey suckles milk from its mother (L) in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur on September 2, 2012. The long-tailed macaques can be found in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur. (MOHD RASFAN/AFP/GettyImages)

  • Newly born twin baby orangutans cling to their mother at an enclosure at the Foundation for Sustainable Ecosystem in Medan, North Sumatra province on January 27, 2011. Orangutans are far more genetically diverse thatn thought, a finding that could help their survival, say scientists delivering their full DNA analysis of the critically endangered ape. The study, published January 27 in the science journal Nature, also reveals that the orangutan -- 'the man of the forest' -- has hardly evolved over the past 15 million years, in sharp contrast to Homo sapiens and his closest cousin, the chimpanzee. (AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A black-and-white ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata) born in captivity a month ago, hangs on the back of its mother at the zoo in Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, on March 7, 2011. It is the second time there is a birth of this species in captivity in Colombia. (LUIS ROBAYO/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A Titi Pigmeo (Cebuella Pygmaea) born in captivity ten days ago, hangs from the back of its mother at the Santa Fe zoo in Medellin, Antioquia department, Colombia on May 13, 2011. (RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A mother polar bear plays with one of her three cubs born in last November, at the Moscow Zoo, on March 22, 2012. (ANDREY SMIRNOV/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A one-month-old baby lion-tailed macaque clings to its mother at Berlin's Zoologischer Garten Zoo August 23, 2011. The lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus) is an Old World monkey that is endemic to the Western Ghats of south India, it ranks among the rarest and most threatened primates. Some 3000-3500 of these animals live scattered over several areas in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. (JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Johti, 44-years old Asiatic Elephant (Elephas Maximus), plays with her newborn female baby at Ostrava's Zoo on May 31, 2011. The baby elephant was born on April 15. (JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A three-month-old Crowned lemur (Eulemur coronatus) sits next to its mother in their enclosure on July 8, 2011 at the zoo in Mulhouse, northeastern France. Every year there are about 250 to 350 births at the Mulhouse zoo. Some young animals, once weaned, can be introduced in protected zones of their original region. If not, they go to other zoos to make up other families. Genetic mixing is necessary for the animals' health and the survival of the species. (SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A three-month-old Pied tamarin (Saguinus Bicolor) is pictured with its mother in their enclosure on July 8, 2011 at the zoo in Mulhouse, northeastern France. Every year there are about 250 to 350 births at the Mulhouse zoo. Some young animals, once weaned, can be introduced in protected zones of their original region. If not, they go to other zoos to make up other families. Genetic mixing is necessary for the animals' health and the survival of the species. (SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A three-month-old Crowned lemur (Eulemur coronatus) sits next to its mother in their enclosure on July 8, 2011 at the zoo in Mulhouse, northeastern France. Every year there are about 250 to 350 births at the Mulhouse zoo. Some young animals, once weaned, can be introduced in protected zones of their original region. If not, they go to other zoos to make up other families. Genetic mixing is necessary for the animals' health and the survival of the species. (SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A baby Pygmy hippopotamus stands next to her mother in an enclosure at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo on July 24, 2011. The baby hippo was born on June 22 at the zoo. (KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A baby baboon only a few days old clings to its mother in an enclosure at the 'ZOOM' Zoo in Gelsenkirchen, western Germany on March 12, 2012. (PATRIK STOLLARZ/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A Danta (Tapitus terrestris) born in captivity ten days ago, stands by its mother at the Santa Fe zoo in Medellin, Antioquia department, Colombia on May 13, 2011. (RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP/Getty Images)

  • 'Luk Chai' (L) and his mother 'Thong Dee' (R) arrive for Luk Chai's second birthday celebrations at Taronga Zoo in Sydney on July 4, 2011. The 830kg infant was the first Asian elephant to be born in Australia and is considered to be a milestone in the zoo's Asian Elephant Conservation Program. (TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/AFP/Getty Images)

  • This photo taken on December 2, 2011 shows a lamb feeding on her mother as a flock of sheep graze along a road in the outskirts of Beijing. Agricultural authorities in China have recently begun testing sheep after media reports claimed the livestock had been fed an illegal additive meant to make their meat leaner, claiming that clenbuterol, commonly known as 'lean meat powder' in China, was detected in live sheep in Lijin county, a major sheep meat production base in Shandong province. (GOH CHAI HIN/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A white tiger cub is pictured beside its mother Lisa on December 5, 2011 at the zoological park of Cerza in Hermival-les-Vaux, northern France. The three-year-old Lisa gave birth on October 8, 2011 to two white tigers belonging to a relatively rare species. (KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Two Pumas cubs and their mother called ''Xochitl'' remain at the National Zoo in Masaya department, Nicaragua on January 25, 2012. (ELMER MARTINEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A merino lamb lies next to its mother moments after its birth at the Educational and Reserach Station for Animal Breeding (Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt fuer Tierzucht und Tierhaltung, or LVAT) in Brandenburg state on January 27, 2012 in Gross Kreutz, Germany. Hundreds of lambs have been born at the LVAT in recent weeks in the midst of the station's lambing season. Many of the lambs will be sold just before Easter, when they will have grown to a weight of over 40kg, as lamb is the traditional German Easter meal. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

  • Eighteen-day-old pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis or Hexaprotodon liberiensis) makes his first public appearance with its 29-year-old mother Dina at the Bratislava zoo on May 24, 2011. The father is four-year-old Paul brought from the Berlin at the age of one. (JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A two week-old Eastern Bongo calf stands beside her mother at Sydney's Taronga Zoo on April 13, 2012. Eastern (or Highlands) Bongos are critically endangered with as few as 75 remaining in small groups of 6 to 12 animals in their Kenyan upland range. Bongo are one of the largest species of antelope in the world and are recognised by their striking russet colour and large antlers which extend over their backs. (WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A baby giraffe calf named Mugambi explores alongside his mother Etosha the compound at the Hagenbeck Zoo on April 18, 2012 in Hamburg, Germany. The male calf was born on March 13 with a weight of 55 kilos. (Photo by Joern Pollex/Getty Images)

  • Baby polar bear Anori is accompanied by her mother Vilma as she explores her enclosure at the zoo in Wuppertal, western Germany, on April 19, 2012. Anori was born on January 4, 2012. Anori has the same father as world famous polar bear Knut, who died in 2011. (PATRIK STOLLARZ/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Bristol Zoo's baby gorilla Kukena holds onto his mother's arm as he ventures out of his enclosure at Bristol Zoo's Gorilla Island on May 4, 2012 in Bristol, England. The seven-month-old western lowland gorilla is starting to find his feet as he learns to walk having been born at the zoo in September. Kukena joins a family of gorillas at the zoo that are part of an international conservation breeding programme for the western lowland gorilla, which is a critically endangered species. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

  • A ring-tailed lemur baby is carried by its mother through their enclosure at the Serengeti animal park in Hodenhagen, western Germany, on May 14, 2012. In the wild, the monkeys live in South America. (HOLGER HOLLEMANN/AFP/GettyImages)

  • One-day-old giraffe Bashu is groomed by its mother Iwana at the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam, on 20 June 2012. (ED OUDENAARDEN/AFP/GettyImages)

  • A baby beluga whale swims close to her 11 year old mother called Parara, at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium in Yokohama in suburban Tokyo on June 30, 2012. The one a half meters in length baby beluga was born at the aquarium on June 28. (YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/GettyImages)

  • Jumaane, a 4-month old male African baby white rhinos stays close to his mother, Shova in its enclosure at the Singapore Zoo on July 17, 2012. Singapore Zoo currently has eight of these majestic creatures in its collection, and with the most number of white rhinos bred in a single zoo in Southeast Asia. So far 13 baby white rhinos have been born here, with some have been sent to Indonesia, Australia, Thailand and South Korea as part of the Zoo?s ex-situ conservation efforts through its worldwide exchange programme .White rhinos are considered near threatened in the wild on the IUCN?s Red List of Threatened species. (ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/GettyImages)

  • Baby capuchin monkey Bonita sits on her mother and bites in a piece of paper at the zoo in Cologne, western Germany, on August 2, 2012. In the wild, capuchins live in Central and South America. (OLIVER BERG/AFP/GettyImages)

  • Baby capuchin monkey Bonita sits on her mother at the zoo in Cologne, western Germany, on August 2, 2012. In the wild, capuchins live in Central and South America. (OLIVER BERG/AFP/GettyImages)

  • Young leopards from Sri Lanka, born in the bioparc of Doue-la-Fontaine, play with their mother Iris on September 2, 2012. The Sri Lanka leopard is the largest feline in the island country that shares its name. Rare in captivity, it is threatened by the destruction of its habitat. Three young panthera live in the Zoo of Doue-La-Fontaine, Ciuttai, Cingha and Lanka are the children of Iris (6 years) and Bonhomme (12 years). (FRANK PERRY/AFP/GettyImages)

  • A new born male dolphin and its mother Roxane swim on September 4, 2012, the day after the birth, at the Brugge Seapark. (KURT DESPLENTER/AFP/GettyImages)

  • A five months of old male baby golden brushtail possum named Cooper (R) eats his meal next to his mother named Cascade at the Wild Life zoo in Sydney's central district on September 14, 2012. Joey's birth in April is the fourth succesful captive breeding program by Wild Life on the rare golden brushtail possum whose unique color is due to low levels of melanin in their skin and makes them highly visible to predators in the Australian wilds. (ROMEO GACAD/AFP/GettyImages)

  • One month-old baby mandrill Aron clings to his mother Sandra in their cage at Berlin's Zoologischer Garten zoo on September 28, 2012. The mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) is a primate of the Old World monkey (Cercopithecidae) family,closely related to the baboons and even more closely to the drill. (JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/GettyImages)

  • One month-old baby mandrill Aron clings to his mother Sandra in their cage at Berlin's Zoologischer Garten zoo on September 28, 2012. The mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) is a primate of the Old World monkey (Cercopithecidae) family,closely related to the baboons and even more closely to the drill. (JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/GettyImages)

  • Goliath (L), a baby rhinoceros born on September 18, looks on in his pen next to his mother on October 4, 2012, in the zoological park of Peaugres, central France. Goliath is the first rhino to be born in a French zoo this year and the third in Europe. (PHILIPPE DESMAZES/AFP/GettyImages)

  • A mother toque macaque, which is a kind of monkey from Ceylon, holds her male baby at Zoo Berlin on October 23, 2012 in Berlin, Germany. The baby monkey was born on August 23. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

  • A mother toque macaque, which is a kind of monkey from Ceylon, holds her male baby at Zoo Berlin on October 23, 2012 in Berlin, Germany. The baby monkey was born on August 23. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

  • A baby hippopotamus born November 23 swims with its mother at Zoo Berlin on December 7, 2012 in Berlin, Germany. The baby hippo is a boy and has two sisters. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

  • A baby anteater (Myemecophaga tridactyla), born in captivity last December 6, is pictured next to its mother at Amneville Zoo, on December 20, 2012 in Amneville, eastern France. (JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Four-week-old Jamil (R) a greater one horned rhinoceros stands beside his mother, Behan, at an enclosure at Whipsnade Zoo on January 8, 2013. The rhino, one of Whipsnade's newest arrivals weighed in a 59 Kg at birth. The young rhino made its first pubic appearance, stepping out from his paddock for the first time ready to be counted in the annual zoo stocktake. (ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A White-Cheeked Gibbon mother sits and her baby (R) look on at the Beijing Zoo on January 21, 2013. The zoo grounds were originally a Ming Dynasty imperial palace and finally opened to the public in 1908. The zoo's history states that during the WWII, most of the zoo's animals died of starvation with only 13 monkeys and one old emu surviving the war. (MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A drill monkey mother Kaduna holds her one week young Drill baby in the primate enclosure in the zoo of Munich Hellabrunn, southern Germany, on January 31, 2013. The Drill monkey baby was born in the zoo on January 24, 2013. The Drill's are in danger of extinction in Africa. (CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/23/dog-buries-dead-puppy-mourning-video_n_3487456.html

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    Neil McCarthy: Meta-Data

    It's a weird word.

    For over two weeks now, the news is that the National Security Agency (or NSA) has for years been vacuuming "meta-data" from AT&T, Verizon and all our computer servers with the willing assistance of the Silicon Valley's best and brightest -- Google, Apple, Microsoft, Skype, YouTube, AOL, Paypal, etc. -- and then storing it on government servers.

    According to the government, they haven't looked at the actual content of any conversation or email without first obtaining a warrant (from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court). So the "meta-data" just sits there all by its lonesome, as it were, until some patriot armed with the proper clearance mines it to foil a terrorist plot. Also according to the government, this "meta-data" has been instrumental in stopping a number of terrorist acts, though no one can tell us any of the particulars, all of which are classified.

    So, what is "meta-data"?

    One of my majors at Dartmouth College in the '70s was philosophy. As part of that major, I probably took a course in "metaphysics," though I can't remember doing so. In any case, it was assuredly part of the core curriculum of courses offered to philosophy majors; then, as now, Dartmouth called it one of the "systematic fields of philosophy."

    Unfortunately, the field is very hard to define. The term literally means "after" (meta) "physics" or the "physical." According to Aristotle, it was what you studied after you mastered the sciences. I suppose the idea was that one had to be first firmly rooted in (and knowledgeable of) reality before tackling the abstract universe of first principles -- the "why is there something rather than nothing?" or "what's it all about, Alfie?" stuff of late nights in Greenwich Village bars. The reality, however, is that reality is often the last thing touched upon in those late night rap sessions ...

    Or in those college seminars on "metaphysics."

    Which is more or less the same thing now going on with "meta-data"?

    Like the philosopher's world of metaphysics, the NSA's world of meta-data clothes reality in an abstract lingo that suggests nothing all that personal -- or real -- is being examined. In fact, the word itself has become part of the government's public defense. As Sen. Feinstein put it, "This is just meta-data, there is no content involved."

    Nothing, however, could be further from the truth.

    There is nothing abstract about meta-data. It is data that discloses the time, length and place of individual communications, the participants respective phone or digital IDs, and their respective locations. Companies have become enamored of the profit-making potential inherent in such data because, as the Guardian recently explained, it has "revelatory power." Quoting U. Penn. researcher Matt Blaze, the paper continued, "Meta -data is our context. [It] can reveal far more about us -- both individually and as groups -- than the words we speak. Context yields insights into who we are and the implicit, hidden relationships between us. A complete set of all the calling records for an entire country is ... a record not just of how the phone is used, but, coupled with powerful software, of our importance to each other, our interests, values and the various roles we play."

    The government asserts it needs and gets individual warrants from the FISA court every time it lifts the veil and examines the contents of any actual communication. It also asserts it does this solely to combat terrorism.

    But who knows?

    The proof is as classified as the program Edward Snowden illegally disclosed two weeks ago.

    We are not just being asked trust the government here. We are being asked to trust the government now and in the foreseeable future.

    We are also being asked to assume that no government -- either now or in the future -- will do with this information what all government has eventually done with information like it in the past, namely, look at it -- either at the "meta" or content level -- and, at some point, abuse it. This is what the CIA did with COINTELPRO before the Church committee blew the lid off its clandestine operations in the '70s. It is what J. Edgar Hoover -- who was especially good at blackmailing politicians and other personal enemies with knowledge of their secret relationships -- did for years as head of the FBI.

    It not only can happen again.

    It will.

    And when it does, there will be nothing abstract, or impersonal or unreal about ...

    Meta-data.

    ?

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    Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/neil-mccarthy/metadata_b_3487368.html

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